London = Awesome / Rest of UK = Rubbish... Discuss...

[lamboman100]

London has, again, for the 3rd time in 4 years, topped the rankings as the world's most popular city, by volume and by revenue. No other British cities get even a sniff. Well ahead of Paris, NY and many others. A great achievement:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-seals...

But why is London so popular and rich, and the rest of the UK so unpopular and poor?

What can be done to solve the gap between London and the rest of the UK?

Not a popcorn or troll question. Genuinely interested to hear thoughts on the topic, as it is a major national issue (or should be).

[lamboman100]

I think it's reasonable to say zones 3 to 9 of London are average, bordering on cr*p in some places.

But zones 1 and 2 are just about the best stretch of land on Earth. Only Manhattan (and perhaps Central Paris on a good day) can rival Central London for world-class daylife, worklife, touristlife and nightlife in one single package.

What amazes me is why other major UK cities don't feel compelled to "compete" with London. None is hungry enough. They have all but given up.

[lamboman100]

Fittster said:

lamboman100 said:

Only Manhattan (and perhaps Central Paris on a good day) can rival Central London for world-class daylife, worklife, touristlife and nightlife in one single package.

What exactly is world-class about the worklife in London? Seems pretty much the same as work anywhere else but I have to travel by tube to get to it.

The quantity and quality of worklife in London is almost unmatched anywhere in the world. And definitely unmatched in Britain.

Quantity: Aside from manufacturing (which is only ~15% of global GDP these days), London is no.1 or top-tier in most major fields. Finance, law, insurance, trading, metals, minerals, fossil fuels, housing, air travel, tourism, communications, PR, marketing, R&D, pharma, diplomacy, academia, etc. etc. It has the biggest total GDP of any city in EMEA, and the 3rd biggest on the planet. London really is your oyster.

Quality: Pay in the leading fields, like finance and law, is just about the highest in the world. The rule of law is also exceptionally strong. Few cities can match London. It is a city where a 60-year-old can squirrel away £10m and be 99% certain it will never be stolen by government or corruption, where a 30-year-old can make £500k salary, and where a middling 40-year-old can easily make £100k.

London is not perfect. Nowhere is. But it is in a different league to everything in Britain and almost all of the rest of the world. As I say, the mystery now is why so few UK cities (e.g. Edinburgh, Manchester, etc.) want to "compete" with London. If they did, there is no doubt we would all (mostly) be better off for it.

[lamboman100]

kingofdbrits said:

I was having this discussion with my Cousin, she's just bought her first house in a posh part of London for £720k, a nice 3 bed semi. I told her she was mad, i have a 5 bed detached that's not far off half the price and the house is triple the size. It's in a small village that's crime free & quiet.

The difference is, by ~2030, she will be a property millionaire and swanning around like Lady Muck

There is an urban legend of 2 Barnsley twins who moved house as young adults in the 1960s. One stayed in Barnsley and did an "average" job. The other moved to Central London and did a similar "average" job. Both bought houses of a similar "average" size. Fast-forward to the 2010s, and one is living an average lifestyle for a pensioner (Barnsley). The other sold the house and retired a millionaire (London).

[lamboman100]

Hackney said:

jdw1234 said:

There is a "slight" bias towards London havingthe best restaurants though...

http://food.uk.msn.com/restaurants/michelin-red-gu...

Three stars - "Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey"
Fat Duck, Bray
Waterside Inn, Bray
Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Chelsea
Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, Mayfair

Two stars - "Excellent cooking, worth a detour"
NEW Dinner by Heston Blumenthal (at Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park), Hyde Park & Knightsbridge
NEW Greenhouse, Mayfair
Sketch (The Lecture Room & Library), Mayfair
L'Enclume, Grange-over-Sands/Cartmel
Michael Wignall at The Latymer (at Pennyhill Park Hotel), Bagshot
Midsummer House, Cambridge
Gidleigh Park, Chagford
Le Champignon Sauvage, Cheltenham
Whatley Manor (The Dining Room), Malmesbury
The Hand and Flowers, Marlow
Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottingham
Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, Oxford/Great Milton
Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, Rock
Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles, Auchterarder
Patrick Guilbaud, Dublin
The Ledbury, North Kensington
Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley, Mayfair
Le Gavroche, Mayfair
Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, Mayfair
Hibiscus, Mayfair
Square, Mayfair

So 50% of the three star restaurants and 57% of the two stars *aren't* in London? I'd say that's a pretty poor show for London all things considered.
And therefore Bray is better than London.

Personally - and I think I speak for a huger proportion of the population (London / the rest of the UK) when I say that michelin stars have very little influence on what I consider a good restaurant. They're so far out of what I consider to be the norm.

My favourite London restaurants
28-50 Mayfair
The Jugged Hair, Barbican
Mangal, Dalston
Cafe La Divina, Islington
(possibly some others, that I've missed)

Outside of London
The Garden Room at Dormy House, Broadway
Harts, Nottingham
Mother India, Glasgow
Stravaigin, Glasgow
Three Chimneys, Dunvegan, Skye

London is 10 - 20% of the UK population, but captures 40 - 50% of all the best UK Michelin restaurants. London bats way above its average on food these days.

[lamboman100]

vescaegg said:

Hackney said:

Disastrous said:

What's a wannabee Londoner?

Someone who lives in Kingston, Surbiton, Surrey, Rainham, Purfleet, Crawley, Bromley, Orpington, Northwood, Watford, Barnet, Enfield, etc, etc and says they live in London.

XJ Flyer said:

gibbon said:

Disastrous said:

Why would you do that? Also, are they not all London??

Greater London I believe, not the same thing.

It's absolutely the 'same thing' being that the London Boroughs are London Boroughs and no longer part of the surrounding counties they were taken from.It's either one or the other.Not both or neither.

Id call most of them London. Within 20-25mins on a train is hardly far from the very centre of any large city. One of the trains from Surbiton takes 17 or 18 mins to hit Waterloo - a hell of a lot quicker than many tube lines within zones 2 would.

Some Londoners may not count it as London, for anyone say over 50 miles away from the centre of town, those people are living in London.

Edited by vescaegg on Thursday 10th July 16:52

Zones 1 and 2 are "proper London".

Zones 3 to 6, and 7 to 9 at a stretch, are "London Lite".

I have lived in Kingston and Knightsbridge. Despite being only a few miles apart, they are like night and day. Knightsbridge is electric and feels like the centre of the world. Kingston feels like a provincial town with some Mockneys in it.

[lamboman100]

Scuffers said:

lamboman100 said:

London is 10 - 20% of the UK population, but captures 40 - 50% of all the best UK Michelin restaurants. London bats way above its average on food these days.

Only if you a shallow food snob with more money than sence..

The rest if the country has some excellent food, they just dint need to go on an ego trip to sell it...

No snobbery about it.

London simply has better high-end eateries than the rest of the UK. The best gravitate to the best. The independent Michelin guide confirms it.

There are exceptions, of course, but as a broad rule, British food outside London is bland, dry, and microwaved by students on £2 an hour.

Unless you go to a northern chippy, where, I grant you, the food is always exceptionally tasty.

[lamboman100]

0000 said:

NomduJour said:

Can do it on way less. £90k down and £60k salary gets you an awesome SW7 pad: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prope...

I'm starting to understand why Londoners want to spend all their time in gourmet chocolate shops and football stadiums.

Lol.

As others have already mentioned, Central London really only becomes truly enjoyable when household income rises above the roughly £250k threshold, preferably £500k, and ideally £1m. At those levels, you can start to buy / rent a decent house / apartment, park a good car(s) in a garage, get a hot au-pair / mistress, take taxis instead of the tube, eat at restaurants most days, party / socialize in good clubs, wear nice clothes / bling, etc. etc. Beneath the roughly £250k salary level, decent housing is harder to find in Central London, and it has a knock-on effect to make living life a little tougher than it needs to be.

[lamboman100]

Elmbridge -- just inside the M25, and on-track to be incorporated into Greater London -- has recently been named the Beverly Hills of Britain:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2699746/We...

[lamboman100]

Outer London now getting a £200bn orbital railway encircling the entire capital from east to west and north to south:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2711686/Pl...

[lamboman100]

London was confirmed today as the world's capital of dollar-millionaires.

Around 3% of the London population is a dollar-millionaire:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2717531/Lo...